Google promises to release 'tablet of the highest quality' in 6 months

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has teased that his company plans to release an Android-powered "Nexus" tablet within the next six months to take on Apple's market leading iPad.

Schmidt's comments, in which he said the device will be "a tablet of the highest quality," came in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera (viaSlash Gear). The comments signal that Google plans to make another push to counter Apple's iPad.

Google's first formal attempt to break into the tablet market came earlier this year with the Motorola Xoom, which ran a tablet-exclusive operating system in Android 3.0. But the Xoom failed to catch on while Apple continued to see record sales of the iPad.

The latest version of the Android, dubbed "Ice Cream Sandwich," unites Honeycomb, the tablet-specific variant of the mobile operating system, with Gingerbread, which was designed for smartphones. It debuted last month on the Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

The Nexus branding is used by Google to highlight "pure" Android devices that ship with the stock version of the operating system. Though Google championed Motorola's Xoom at launch, it did not gain the Nexus branding.

Android tablets have struggled thus far, and even failed to outsell HP's discontinued TouchPad, which saw its sales bolstered by a $99 fire sale. Recent reports have suggested that Amazon's Kindle Fire, which runs a heavily modified version of Android and grants users access to Amazon's own application store, has taken the number two spot in tablet sales since it debuted last month.

Schmidt also confirmed in the interview that Google plans to leverage its own voice recognition technology to compete with Apple's Siri, found in the iPhone 4S. One rumor published last week claimed that Google is preparing its own voice assistant, code-named "Majel," to counter Siri.

BT, the U.K. telecoms company, has launched legal action in the U.S. against Google (GOOG-Q622.86-3.10-0.50%) for patent infringement in a number of areas crucial to the U.S. technology groups search, maps and music services, as well as its Android phone platform.

BT claims infringement of patents in technologies behind location-based services, navigation and guidance information, as well as access to mobile services and content.

Eric Schmidt sure likes to predict great things that will happen 6 months or more from now. That must be how long it takes most of us to forget what he said. The other way to read his latest proclamation is that every Android tablet currently on the market is a piece of crap

I have to give Microsoft, they finally let their talent get product out the door in WinPhone... it's a different take on phone UX and one that works very well if their user model fits your way.

In seeming unrelated but possibly could be related news: (Kidding Island Hermit)

Novell brought suit against Microsoft for anti-competitive behavior (WordPerfect, Quattro), with the trial just ending in a hung jury, 11-1 in favor of Novell. Even the 12th juror was convinced MS was guilty, just not comfortable with the level of harm.